Enterprise users now have access to multiple avenues for cloud migration thanks to the release in the past few days of an on-premises version of Microsoft's Azure DevOps suite. The announcement confirms that, in the lexicon of digital transformation, agility is increasingly synonymous with cloud - so it's fitting that Microsoft is arming teams bound by systems infrastructures with more than a sexy sales pitch.

The operating systems giant’s Azure DevOps Server is a carbon copy of the tools and platform interfaces that helps teams engaged in continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) processes work more efficiently in the cloud (including the company’s Azure Cloud).

Rebranded in September, Azure DevOps wraps the company’s long-standing Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) offering with automation tools and repositories on GitHub, the open-source development platform that Microsoft acquired at mid-year.

In-House, On-Premise Promise

The Azure DevOps suite spans the development lifecycle, with controls for build-and-release management, and for the tracking and testing code in development. Extensions let teams using Azure DevOps work across cloud and as-a-service platforms, including those from rival providers.

This agnostic approach mirrors Microsoft’s own transformation away from the provision of proprietary operating systems for enterprise servers and home computers to open-source software and cloud hosting. By offering DevOps teams the same capabilities on-premises, Microsoft intends to maintain user links, even while working to transition enterprise customers to the Azure cloud.

As with its Team Foundation Server predecessor, Azure DevOps Server is aimed at distributed teams working within organizations conducting in-house development processes. Users can take advantage of the same functionality, either through holistic, as-a-service deployments or on a gradual basis via component modules.

Processes include workflow pipelines that let teams access developer communities on GitHub, the platform Microsoft acquired in June for $7.5 billion. Azure DevOps CI/CD pipelines work with open-source Linux and Apple’s macOS, as well as Microsoft’s Window’s operating system.

Like Azure DevOps, the on-prem Server version offers drag-and-drop dashboards for creating processes and monitoring progress. These enable users to backlog changes and to create customizable reports on team activity with enhanced business intelligence and operational analytics.

The Server option also contains sharing functionality for passing packages of code among members, teams or ex-organization users. Called Azure Artifacts, the feature allows for the handling of Apache, Java and Java Script feeds from both private and public sources.

Greater Testing Power

As a vehicle for growing the code libraries available on GitHub, Microsoft is making repository-hosting a feature of the Azure DevOps and Azure DevOps Server suites.
GitHub lets users automate builds and trigger tests and deployments, including across multiple development chains.

The testing functionality also provides for manual process tests across web and desktop, with data capture and traceability providing a faster path for detecting and correcting code defects.

To facilitate ease of use, Microsoft says the on-prem modules are open and extensible. They also are container-friendly, meaning teams can build, test and deploy applications they develop on their IT infrastructures in hybrid and hosted cloud environments using open-source Kubernetes, as well as with Docker and Azure registries.

To help users keep their cloud options open, Microsoft has equipped DevOps Server with Azure SQL for stream-processing data that enables faster integration with cloud storage and compute. As well, they can deploy to as-a-service platforms and infrastructures, in addition to their on-premises systems.

Open-Source Vow

With Microsoft’s migration of customers from the VSTS to Azure DevOps underway, the next iteration of the tools and tech for on-premises users isn’t expected until 2020. Nevertheless, the simple-object access protocols that permit communications between differing program languages are set to be withdrawn.

Making their debut on the Foundation Team Server better more than 12 years ago, the APIs for working and testing have been rendered obsolete by representational object transfer tech that uses URLs to produce human-readable results when classing applications.

While the company hopes for en masse migration to its Azure Cloud, Microsoft says it intends to support DevOps teams of all infrastructure levels with its combination of platforms and services. That it is doing so on an open-source basis is further testament to the transition from proprietary software that Microsoft hopes to encourage among customers.

Some name

Cormac at VitalBriefing is a full stack web platform developer and programmer, for many years building and running systems, applications and products in data processing, disaster recovery, virtualization and programming. In his own words, he's “old enough to have tackled the Y2K bug but young enough to keep on top of the cutting-edge of cyber and data security.” He also works with myriad programming and OS issues, as well as software and mobile development for apps and web.